2024 Spring Virtual Retreat

Remembering Who We Are:  Taking Refuge in Buddha  

As we move through life, we react and adapt to the people and circumstances we meet.  Over time, patterns of behavior develop in service of self-protection and emotional need-meeting and we can start to believe that this repeating pattern of activity is the Self.  We can forget our true nature and become ensnared in the self-centered dream.  Awakening to this reality, seeing it clearly, we are freed up to be exactly who we are; to return to our true nature.

Returning to the self, the true self which is nobody, is nothing but the complete awakening. We call this Buddha. 

- Kobun Chino Otogawa

This returning, this being completely ourselves and clearly seeing the reality within and around us, is the essence of taking refuge in Buddha.   In this one-day intensive - the third of our series on the Triple Treasure - we will explore what it means to return to our Buddha nature, to wakefulness.

Retreat occurred 9 March 2024

Handouts for the Retreat

Books Referenced During the Retreat

Existence - A Story -  by David Hinton

Girl with a Pearl Earring: A Novel

Matthew Sullivan’s Commentary on the Blue Cliff Record

Three Turns of the Wheel From Tenshin Reb Anderson

Vasubandhu's "Three Natures": A Practitioner's Guide for Liberation

Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmochana Sutra

You Must Be Somebody Before You Can Be Nobody - Interview with Jack Engler

You can find the Norman Fischer series on Vasubandhu that Flint referenced by Everyday Zen on the list of teachings here:  https://everydayzen.org/featured-teachings/#all-teachings

Readings Shared or Referenced During the Retreat

From the Welcome:

“There are some instructions called "The Way to Practice Throughout the Day" that were given to laymen when they visited Zen monasteries in the 14th century: "the way to practice throughout the day is to throw yourself completely into each activity." When you do zazen, do nothing else but zazen; do not think about enlightenment, do not think about Buddhist teaching. When you go to service, hold the sutra card with two hands and chant wholeheartedly; do not think about the meaning of the sutras, do not think about zazen. When you go to breakfast, fully attend to the food in front of you and realize the mind of eating; and when you rest, just rest. So when you sit zazen, just do zazen; and when you work, just work. This spirit of just sitting or just working becomes common to all our activity when we practice.”

From The Buddha We Are by  Josho Pat Phelan

Prompt From the Morning Dharma Activity:

How is this returning to ourselves and clearly seeing who we are, the essence of taking refuge in Buddha? 

Koan from Flint’s Dharma Talk:

Case 19

Joshu asked Nansen, “What is the Way?”
“Ordinary mind is the Way,” Nansen replied.
“Shall I try to seek after it?” Joshu asked.
“If you try for it, you will become separated from it,” responded Nansen.
“How can I know the Way unless I try for it?” persisted Joshu.
Nansen said, “The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?”
With these words, Joshu came to a sudden realization. 

MUMON’S COMMENTARY

Nansen dissolved and melted away before Joshu’s questions, and could not offer a plausible explanation. Even though Joshu comes to a realization, he must delve into it for another thirty years before he can fully understand it. 

MUMON’S VERSE
The spring flowers, the autumn moon;
Summer breezes, winter snow.
If useless things do not clutter your mind,
You have the best days of your life.